ShopClues to help vendors go online with GoDaddy

Under this initiative, merchants can choose the website as per their business, link it to the ShopClues portal, and access the company’s technology.Richa Maheshwari | ET Bureau | May 16, 2016, 10:36 IST

Shopclues CEO Sanjay Sethi with CBO Radhika AggarwalOnline marketplace ShopClues and web hosting company GoDaddy have entered into a strategic partnership to help all merchants on the platform build their own ecommerce websites.

While GoDaddy will provide them with domain names, Shop-Clues will assist and maintain these websites. “These standalone websites will be powered by us,” said Sanjay Sethi, CEO of ShopClues.

Under this initiative, merchants can choose the website as per their business, link it to the ShopClues portal, and access the company’s technology and online payment and logistics services for a sum.

The company did not disclose the fee it is charging for such services. “Such value-added services will benefit merchants who want to create their individual presence online and in the process we will make money out of it,” Sethi added.

The online player, which aims to achieve profitability by this year, has about 4,00,000 merchants on the platform. For sellers, this step could help them differentiate themselves from other online sellers.

“To start with, sellers can gain additional revenues from the geography where he is present, and some sellers could become larger brands through this,” said Sreedhar Prasad, partner - ecommerce at KPMG. ShopClues is also monetising its platform by selling various services to vendors.